The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Astilbe, botanically known as Astilbe arendsii×Astilbe japonica and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Versred’.
The new Astilbe plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Haarlem, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program was to create new uniform and freely flowering Astilbe plants with attractive leaf and flower coloration.
The new Astilbe plant originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in 2003 in Haarlem, The Netherlands, of an unnamed Astilbe arendsii seedling selection, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unnamed Astilbe japonica seedling selection, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Astilbe plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled greenhouse environment in Haarlem, The Netherlands in 2005.
Asexual reproduction of the new Astilbe plant by in vitro propagation in a controlled environment in Honselersdijk, The Netherlands since the summer of 2005, has shown that the unique features of this new Astilbe plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.